Nelson Elementary School

One Rockford parent--who wishes to remain anonymous--says the bathroom his son uses at Nelson Elementary School is a mess.

"My son came home the first day of school and said the bathrooms were gross. We didn't think much of it. He came home and said there was no soap or paper towels. After a few days, he kept saying it, so my wife called the school, and talked to a secretary who couldn't tell us why there was no soap or paper towels."

The father saw the bathrooms first hand when he attended an open house several weeks ago and on Tuesday morning, he took these pictures to document the situation. The father says no soap equals big problems.

"If the kids aren't washing their hands--with flu season coming on, who knows what he's going to bring home."

Nelson Elementary School principal Steve Francisco says the bathroom in question is located in the older section of the school.

"We had construction over the summer, that area saw a lot of construction traffic then. Alot of the guys working here were going in and out. Between the change over to GCA Custodians, and the construction and the nature of the building itself, the bathroom is looking a little sadder probably then it should be, but again, we're catching up," says Francisco.

According to Francisco and GCA services, the schools' maintenance worker was let go last week. Francisco says they're working to get the new day porter up to speed. The principal says soap and paper towels are refilled in the morning and night but if they run out during the day the staff needs to be notified.

And as far as the empty soap dispenser is concerned, "The custodian and I were actually down there before you called, and we found that particular soap dispenser was very hard to refill because it had been mounted too close to the sink, and you couldn't get the key out behind there. So we rigged up a little key, so we can do that...so yes, it's probable that there was some soap not in there at the time," says Francisco.

Francisco says it's a priority in the school district to make sure everything is working but making updates and upgrades occurs as time and money permits.

Francisco also says that every classroom at Nelson is supplied with anti-bacterial hand sanitizer in the event that soap runs out.

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